Saturday, 2 February 2013

I blame 20/20

Just turned on to watch the cricket, and I see Pakistan has been rolled for 49 in South Africa. Just recently New Zealand went for 45 against the same team, while Australia was the third team to not pass 50 in South Africa, when they managed 47 in 2011. While this may simply point to issues with batting in South Africa, Australia scored a paltry 74 against Sri Lanka in a recent ODI, then reduced the West Indies to an even smaller 70 in an ODI played just yesterday.
There may be a number of reasons for this run of low scores, such as pitch conditions, and better bowling, but I've decided that 20/20 cricket is to blame. It seems the shift to "hit out/get out" means that batsmen aren't (a) remembering to pick the deliveries to play at and (b) learning how to play themselves in. As a result the loss of a few wickets seems to create panic in the remaining batsmen, with disastrous results.
The only people smiling about this would be the bowlers, who seem to be the real beneficiaries from 20/20. Not only is it helping them improve their Test/ODI averages, they still get paid to serve up only 4 overs a game, before relaxing in pavilion.